MONTREAL - Two seasoned politicians. Two cities. Both on the edge emotionally.

One day after Quebecers elected a minority Parti Québécois government, two rivals were licking their wounds, sizing up what went right and wrong and mostly thinking about what’s next.

As is often the case in these transitional moments for Quebecers in high office, the initial electoral fallout was tangible, personal and oh so cruel.

For one, defeated Liberal Jean Charest, it’s the end of 28 years in public office including nine years as premier. He leaves despite his party’s impressive finish in Tuesday’s election: less than one percentage point behind the PQ in the popular vote.

Five more seats and he probably would have stayed, because leaving was not part of the plan he made clear during the election campaign.

Destined for a humiliating third-place finish by pollsters, Charest’s Liberals stunned the province by bagging 50 seats compared with 54 for the winning PQ, 19 for the Coalition Avenir Québec and two for Québec solidaire.

Until Wednesday, Charest held the title of Canada’s longest current serving premier.

For the other, the PQ’s Pauline Marois, who worked and struggled 40 years to get where she is — where no woman has gone before — it’s the start of something new.

Yet it’s a debut rocked by an act of violence that made headlines around the world.

There was emotion in Marois’s voice Wednesday when she meet the media for the first time in a Montreal hotel in her new title as premier-elect.

With her voice gone from the campaign, her eyes reddened by a lack of sleep, a clearly upset Marois, 63, admitted she was “profoundly affected,” by the shootings at the PQ rally Tuesday.

But she added she has to move forward with plans to form a new government within two weeks.

“Even as a minority, I intend to get results for Quebecers,” Marois said, adding the transition from a Liberal to PQ government will be “orderly and without upheaval.”

She promised to act quickly on her big promises, using cabinet order by decree to abolish the university tuition increases and amend Law 12 (via Bill 78) controlling public demonstrations.

She wants to correct the loopholes in Bill 35 so companies convicted of fraud cannot obtain government contracts.

And she said she will go ahead and table a new rewritten and tougher Bill 101 to bar francophone adults from attending English CEGEPs and make French obligatory in small businesses with 10 to 50 employees.

She recognized the opposition parties probably won’t agree with her on Bill 101 but said she believes a negotiated agreement can be reached — an indication that Marois might be ready to put some water in her wine on this front if the others are, too.

“I will go as far as I can,” Marois said.

Marois confirmed — as part of the transition — that she had a “first cordial” phone conversation with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In the coming days, Marois will hammer together a list of things — based on existing consensus in Quebec — that the PQ wants to bring to the federal table.

That includes Quebec’s opposition to the abolishing of the long-gun registry and changes to the young offenders act.

She did not mention the Conservative leader’s reaction to the PQ’s arrival in power and did not once mention the PQ’s sovereignty plan.

“We do not believe that Quebecers wish to revisit the old constitutional battles of the past,” Harper said in a statement.

“We believe that economic issues and jobs are also the priorities of the people of Quebec.”

Two hours later, on the steps of the National Assembly in Quebec City, his voice choking with emotion, a tearful Charest was headed the other way — out the door — announcing he would be leaving politics as soon as Marois was ready to assume power.

His news conference was first class all the way, as he wished Marois good luck in her new functions and heaped praised on Quebec’s public servants.

He said he and his family, which had urged him to give up politics before the campaign and have supported his highs and lows, reached a unanimous decision to leave.

“I announce my departure without any regrets,” Charest said.

Among his accomplishments, Charest said he was proud of the leadership role Quebec played in the federation under his watch.

“We are blessed to have been born in this country, to share its wealth and to have each other,” Charest said. “There is no other place where I would want to be.”

Noting he will soon be a grandfather for the first time, Charest said nothing would have been possible without his wife and family.

And then he pronounced his final words before turning to walk past the five Quebec flags and back up the stairs: “Pretty soon, I’ll be coming home.”

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